Garden worrys

[Vanessa Thompson (pomare)]

Well my back garden isnt doing so great. (the rain has helped heaps) but the plants are looking a bit sad.
Ive have learnt not to buy and beware of nuserys and what they sell. (as i did plant in cabbage and carrots that were root bound) and they havent turned out at all........carrots are so hiddy looking, ive chucked them in compost and the cabbage has so many holes that they dont look like cabbage anymore.
My cucumbers look sick and all yellow leaved and yellow fruit. which i dont mind, as after looking at a blog post (i think they were vanessa's pics?) They are the cuks for pickleing and i dont pickle YUK lol. I thought they were the dark green cucumbers, like in woolworths, the ones that you use in salads and sandwichies but NOT even,
My pumpkin seems to given lots and lots of flowers and i got rid of the white mold stuff, so going to see how they do.
My zuks are just given me rotton end fruit, getting lots of zuks but they dont seem to be picking up health wise. (what else can i try???) I reackon its my soil and is unhealthy.......
Oh one bonus is, me corn has given me 6 corn cobs, yesterday...mid size! (very nice and got 3 left for my self waiting for me in fridge) but the other 6 cobs have been taken over from caterpillers. Planted 12 plants got 12 corn and 2 baby baby ones........they all need to be ripped out in the next few days. (hopefully i can moro)
and thats all thats left in that back garden...............

Today while it was nice and cold and nice and wet, i jumped out and have decided to go with pots and containers.
All my seedlings have been waiting for me too re-plant.
I planted 4 zuks into pots, (thanks anothy) 2 luffa into pots (thanks mike, someone was given them out at the worm farm visit? was it mike? lol) and two luffa into my herb box........as the lettuce has all bolted to seed and the herbs ive pulled out and dumped. (someone tell me why they all tasted the same? I had 6 different herbs but they all tasted the same?? very strong teate and yuk is all i can say?)
Anyhow ive kept two ice burg lettuce and two leave lettuce for the seeds but curious why has the ice burg bolted when it didnt even get a chace to grow? I did get a bit off the leave lettuce for about 3 months before its bolted. So happy with that lettuce. lol.

Umm what else, re-potted tomatoes and spilt them into their own bigger but little pots (as i sprinkled them instead of placeing one tiny little seed into each little tub. (Thanks lots dona, 3 plants come up from your red cherry packet, 0 from the yellow cherry pack and 7 plants from red cherry packet that had amanda's garden visit on the packet?)
So im going to have lots of tomatoes. Yummy yummy
My 3 up side down tomatoes are doing great and very healthy, no bug or spot in sight and very very yummy. (everyone that comes over, freaks out that they are growing up side down lol)
My 3 strawberrys have picked back up and has helped that, im now keeping an eye on bubs and she is not picking the flowers off. and the little animal that was eaten them before hasnt seemed to come back around. (fingers crossed that he stays away)
My little planter box, with chilli, capsicum and peas are doing great but need water everyday ive noticed. Got lots of flowers and baby capsicum and chillis comming up, pick the first one of each today) The peas have a few flowers and a few pods growing, ate one yesterday very sweet and yum. Growing about a meter up the trellis...(will it grow any higher?) Now i know i can grow peas, im going to need more plants, as i might only get one meal of this lot......will it keep on growing....will have to look that up?

Moro wil be re-potting 4 sunflowers into my stone garden and dig that all up and add mushroom compost to it...see how they go there, lots of sun and coverd from the wind?
and start the potatoes in garden bags, just raise the sides when needed and fill......they are in pots for now but tranfer them moro, going to see how these go and just playing around for now with them......cant wait for the right season for potatoes and see what happens next time heehee

Worm farm is doing well and need to change the contents soon (i think) the last quarter of it i think i need to dump? Ive placed carrots in the last bit but the worms dont seem to going for them this time? and they are starting to compost instead? The rest of my worm farms seem to ready for use......cant wait to add this to my pots with the veges in them. All the cardboard and most of the paper has been eaten and still got lots of movement and can see lots of eggs. So very happy with the worms.
Now somehow, i need to get them into new contents. (i finally put a hole in bottom of the box today, to drain the water wee stuff......but let it drain straight onto my bark garden that im going to prep and compost for a vege garden)
The bark garden is my new project, get rid of all the bark, compost it up and get it ready for some vege's, its right out side my kitchen and i know that ill attend to it everyday......my tomatoes and strawberrys are right next to it)
Next thing im going to do, over the next few weeks, is rip all BUT my pumkin out of the back garden and just compost it up for a good 6 to 8 months and then try again with vege's? I may just use it for pumpkins, water melons and corn next time and stick to pots for everything else????

Anyhow, everything has been wonderful learning and getting use to what can do and what cant do in my gardens. (i think the sun has alot to play in the back garden and has too much sun, hubby did cut my fruit tree a bit much.....i only wanted the top to be chopped off, to let a bit of the morning sun onto bed but he did the whole thing and then cut just the top of the other tree that lets the after noon sun on bed. which he wasnt too touch at all but did.........i dont think he was listeaning???? live and let learn i think. I should of done it my self but was too bizzy trying to dig up that garden and get it ready at the time.........

Another day Another plant Another learning kerb heehee.

[Vanessa Thompson (pomare)]

heehee, yeap the peas are starting to brown up from the bottom up. but got about 12 pods and 15 flowers still comming up. (this was that post i put on about why do nurserys sell out of season plants?) i brought and was going to chuck but then thought why not plant and see what happens lol.

[Vanessa Thompson (pomare)]

thanks dona for that info (thanks everyone for the info. xxx) i wont keep the ice burg lettuce (ripped them out 10 min ago) but shall keep the leaf lettuce as the kids are getting a ginny pig (cant spell lol) and that will keep pig and worm farm happy. They have started to flower now, so hope i can get some seeds. (i didnt actual eat the lettuce of these plants, i was feeding them to the worm farm heehee) I did try them when after a while from planting them in but they just didnt taste right?????
So would be cool if i could get some seeds from ya dona and im going to start seed saving from the heirloom platns only. (all the ones that ive brought as seedlings from the garden centers, i dont think are worth saving)

[Donna]

I should have clarified, the iceberg lettuce that bolted before any leaves could be harvested shouldn't really be kept for seed, as that is not a characteristic you want in the next generation. Of course without flowering you wouldn't get seeds, but you don't want it to 'bolt' straight to seed.

Anyhow ive kept two ice burg lettuce and two leave lettuce for the seeds but curious why has the ice burg bolted when it didnt even get a chace to grow? I did get a bit off the leave lettuce for about 3 months before its bolted. So happy with that lettuce. lol.

[Elaine de Saxe]

>Do you know of any which do grow through our winters?
Not really, Florence ... some will *grow* but not flower. Whether it's day length or temperature I haven't researched, but unless you have a very warm micro-climate you may as well not give garden space to cucurbits in the colder months.

>I wouldn't save the seed from the lettuce that bolted, the next >generation may be prone to bolting.
Well yes, Donna I agree with that in principle. But unless the lettuces 'bolt' there won't be any seeds. Were I saving seeds of lettuces, I'd wait until the last one went to seed and save seed from that one. Although that is not necessarily in the best interests of genetic variation or diversity. I believe it is good seed-saving practice to have several choices within a variety to get some diversity.

And that is fine in theory. Whatever the reason, seeds of Winged Bean are not very viable and my one WB which sprouted of the 4 seeds I got from BOG is a small thin plant at the moment. I'm hoping for better growth from it as the weather warms up, it is supposed to be a tropical perennial so maybe it's not warm enough yet. Or maybe since it's a fairly rare variety, the seeds were not saved from a selection of plants. I've been asked to give some seeds back to BOG which I will but then they will be seeds from one plant only.

[Scarlett Patrick]

gardening can be an instant function, but you have to pay up front.

two scenarios: spend lots of time and small amounts of resources building up soil over time until it starts to give you a return (can be discouraging) or
spend a big whack of money on compost and have more than you can eat within 6 weeks. the $400 we spent on compost and hay to build a no-dig garden paid itself back in 16 weeks (6 weeks waiting, then 10 weeks of replacing our $40 a week food connect vegie box). it's now been feeding us for 2.5 years, and I've probably put two bags of rooster booster and two bags of dolomite on it since we bought the compost... (granted the variety of our diet was poor to start with, but we had so much stuff we had to eat it!)

if your soil is very good it will help reduce the impact of too much sun as well. vegies outside the kitchen window always a good move - you need to watch edibles. your lettuce seedlings probably dried out or got heat stressed, that would probably be why they bolted

sounds like you're doing a great job

[Donna]

I wouldn't save the seed from the lettuce that bolted, the next generation may be prone to bolting. I have a couple of lettuce types that are supposed to be good for our climate and can give you a few of these to try - then if they are better you can save seed.

Not sure about herbs but have heard that stress (no water/ heat etc) can cause lettuce to be bitter... I will try to pot up some seedlings for you of the more common ones like basil, parsley etc.

There is a new Discussion I started on corn yesterday, in it I found a website that says oil will fix the bugs - haven't tried it yet - worth a try though!
http://brisbanelocalfood.ning.com/forum/topics/pollinating-corn-questions

Instead of peas, now is the time to grow beans - again I am happy to give you a few of my seeds to try them and see how you go - picked young they can be eaten raw or put in stir frys.

You are doing heaps better than I did last year, even now I struggle to get food for the table!

[Florence]

You're right Elaine that summer is cucurbit-family time! There's so much I like to grow in this family ~ my Cucurbitaceae bed is sooo full and there are still something else I wanted to grow...

Do you know of any which do grow through our winters?

Vanessa, great work there ~
Maybe next time, try to grow root vegetables such as carrots and radish, as they resent root disturbance. Cucurbitaceae also don't like root disturbance and transplanting really slow them down, but they will usually still do okay in the end when I had to move them..

Theoritically, we can grow lettuces all year round in Brisbane, but you've got to grow different varieties .. ice berg are for cold climate as Elaine already mentioned. Loose leaves varieties generally do better here... I grew some sunflowers to shade my lettuces, but they still bolted.. at least they got to a good size and my chooks loves them :)

If you've got a trailer, try get some mushroom compost from mushroom exchange on Mount Lindsay Highway, I think my cucumbers , squash & zuchinni are doing well so far on a bed which are mainly these mushroom compost..

[Vanessa Thompson (pomare)]

Thanks elaine. I was wondering about the chilli and capsicum but its ok as im not going to save the seeds from these, would like some heirloom seeds, not what ive got and we dont eat much of these but wanted to give them a go. (chilli growing was for spraying on plants) I may use these a little but not alot in my cooking.

[Elaine de Saxe]

Remembered that I hadn't mentioned the lettuces. Great Lakes is a hearting lettuce and need a long cool period in which to grow. They will, as you found, bolt to seed at the first touch of hot weather. The loose-leaf varieties e.g. Cos, Oak Leaf, Mignonette ... you take leaves off each day/s, eventually they will go to seed but not before you've had your money's worth. Oak Leaf are slower to bolt than others. If you can get Darwin Lettuce seed (heritage, from BOG among others) they stand the heat better than others. You will find individual plants which will perform better in your yard, you can keep the seed from these if you want to grow your own seedlings. If not (and I'm finding it a pest to do so) buy the Pohlmanns loose leaf either single variety (eg Cos) or mixed (eg Mignonette, Oriental) and when they are well grown, get some more to replace them. We eat a lot of lettuces so I have 2 punnets-worth of seedlings growing at any time. You need to replace them in about 6 to 8 weeks in the summer and 2 to 3 months in the winter. In the summer, some shade is appreciated by them - they are European plants, not tropical ones so our summers encourage them to bolt to seed and some shade can slow that down.

[Elaine de Saxe]

Wow Vanessa! You've been and are a busy girl :-) Now cucumbers ... not sure there's a difference worth worrying about with cukes - when they are little you can pickle if you want but you can eat them raw just as well. They are probably yellow because of low nitrogen - a bit of chook crap might help or worm castings or just compost if you have it, even composted manure. Don't rip 'em out just yet. If you were wanting the foot long 'continental' cukes you might be pushing it go get seeds or seedlings of that variety. But there are many varieties both green and white which are delicious. Crystal Apple is a white one, Burpless, Ridge, Lebanese to name a few green ones. Summer is cucurbit-family time, they love the heat and lots of water and remember to add some Gypsum for calcium.

Well, yes ... the health of the soil determines the health of the plant. But you cannot make it fantastic first time around, soil health builds as does organic matter. Gardening is not an instant function! Wish it were! So the zukes ... Donna I believe it was (apologies if I've got the name of the discoverer wrong) who suggested that 'blossom end rot' was possible in zukes (and other cucurbits) and using Lime or Gypsum was a possible solution. I've yet to try this as my seedlings are not ready to plant but I've made up a mix ready to plant them into. You've nothing to lose by trying either if you have access ... use Lime if your soil is acidic or Gypsum which won't change the pH.

If you have Capsicum and Chilli flowering at the same time, don't save the seeds coz it's a fair chance you'll get hot Capsicums next time (or sweet Chillis) - they are closely related and inter-breed without a moment's hesitation.

Peas ... these are cold weather plants. If you have a cool micro-climate you might get another month out of them but usually as soon as the weather gets really warm Pea plants fold up. They often get powdery mildew - they are under stress from the weather - and just brown up and die. Get ready to plant Peas in March when it's cooling off.

It's half the fun of gardening trying this here and that there ... only by observation and trial and error do you arrive at what grows for you when and where. The more trial, the less error ;-)

For someone with limited experience, you've done really well and you're keen to experiment and ask questions ... you've got the right attitude to make a great gardener :-)